COMMUNITY: “Studies in Modern Movement” – RECAP

About halfway through watching Community’s “Studies in Modern Movement” I was beginning to see cracks forming in the foundation of the episode. With four storylines going on, instead of the usual two or three, Community was taking on a bit more than it could handle, weighing it down, and it showed. Last year, if you weren’t contributing to the main plot of an episode you were sidelined while Jeff or Abed took center stage the entire episode. This season the writers are trying hard to work everybody in the study group into each episode. That’s easy when what they do is a group effort, but when they’re split up, like they were in “Studies in Modern Movement”, you expect each individual story to be just as good as those group episodes. Unfortunately, four stories felt overcrowded. If they had cut out just one there may have been more time to make the A story (Annie moving in with Troy and Abed) work just right.

Back in “Remedial Chaos Theory”, Troy and Abed offered Annie the opportunity to move into their spare bedroom, an offer she seems to have accepted. Everyone seems jazzed about the move (especially Troy and Abed, who were live tweeting #AnniesMove) except for Britta. She drops some knowledge for Annie, warning her she may start to find Tobred’s particular brand of humor annoying after awhile. It’s a legitimate possibility Annie should have considered, but she was so happy to move out the dump she was staying (you know, the one above Dildopolis) she didn’t think her decision through all the way. It’s in Annie’s nature to try and please everyone, despite how uptight she can be. She may have lost a lot of her innocence since Season 1, but she’s still anal about many things. She’s so tightly wound she swings her arms around when she’s told to loosen up. That’s how she views being loose; literally.

Trobed were particularly wild on purpose in order to frustrate Annie. I’m a little sad their quirkiness is essentially a plot device rather than simply a quirk, but thems the breaks. It came as no surprise the so-called spare bedroom was actually a blanket fort. It wouldn’t be a sitcom if this moving situation worked out perfectly. What was unexpected was the shadow puppet show. It’s absolutely the kind of quirky housewarming silliness Trobed would do, but it wasn’t annoying like the Tweeting or using all the tape to tape Troy to a door. This was a heartwarming moment to remind us that even though Annie may be annoyed from time to time with Tobed’s immaturity, they’re still friends with likeable qualities. Of course all that’s tossed aside when we find out there actually is a second bedroom that’s been repurposed as a room for imaginative play, dubbed “The Dreamatorium”. Annie loses her patience, being sick and tired of always being the one to change for everyone else and leaves. Shortly thereafter everything course corrected itself, but it just felt like it all wrapped up too fast, too quickly. This was where a little extra time could have been used to extend the break up between roommates.

Meanwhile, Jeff was at the mall pretending to be sick so he didn’t have to help with the move. Classic Winger move, but still impressive the way he pulled it off. Getting the saleswoman at the clothing store in on it was a stroke of genius; Jeff earned that trip to the mall. Too bad he runs into Dean Pelton who is more than aware of #AnniesMove (he follows Trobed on Twitter). Suddenly Jeff finds himself blackmailed into spending the afternoon with Dean Pelton (call him Craig), and soon they’re having a lunch date at a Mexican restaurant and Craig is wearing the same outfit as Jeff. Strange, and perfectly Dean. He has always been so delightfully odd, but I’ve always felt he would be fun if anyone took the time to get to know him. Even Jeff, who’s so repulsed by the mere thought of eating with the Dean, ends up having a blast doing karaoke (singing “Kiss From A Rose”). This was a very fun storyline, but it ended rather abruptly. It really wasn’t much of an ending at all.

Pierce volunteers to repair a wall plug in so Annie can keep her security deposit, then things go awry. This bit is mostly an excuse to leave Chevy Chase alone in a room and see what kind of funny and weird things he can make up to do with spilt paint. This was a purely comical part of the episode, though it ended with a nice scene between Annie and Pierce. I personally love those two together. They have a special bond, like a surrogate father and daughter.

Continuing this season’s unusually close examination of Shirley’s faith, she and Britta argue over whether Shirley is the most moral of the group based solely on her religion. To prove she’s just as morally guided, Britta picks up a hitchhiker. From here there’s a cute back and forth, as at first Britta is winning for picking up the man only for Shirley to take the lead when they discover he’s a Christian (cue Shirley’s “Oh, that’s nice!”). The tables get turned again however, when the guy claims he is Jesus reincarnated and believes marijuana should be legalized (cue Britta’s mocking “Oh, that’s nice!”). There’s a nice little song (it plays during the wonderful medley at the highpoint of each storyline), but then the story sputters and dies. Shirley and Britta tell Jesus to get out of the car, seemingly uniting them against this crazy guy, but it wasn’t nearly enough to satisfy me.

In a nutshell, that’s how I felt about everything as a whole; unsatisfied. Each storyline started off fantastically and held a lot of promise. Some were able to get farther exploring the characters in the stories, but none really reached a truly satisfying conclusion. Whether things felt rushed or weren’t even properly ended, I can say nothing felt like a finished plot. Yet the sheer amount of jokes per minute and the always reliable cast nearly overshadow the missing pieces of “Studies in Modern Movement”, allowing it to still feel like Community, just a weaker version.